My racing Astons started in 1953, and although the first year brought some results, there wasn’t a win until 1955,...
During the fifties, Aston Martin produced sports cars with the designation, DB, which, of course, stands for David Brown. In...
June 2009 Spewing flame on a downshift, Carroll Shelby presses onward with the Aston Martin DBR1 at Goodwood’s six-hour Tourist Trophy race on September 5, 1959. Joined by Stirling Moss, he and Jack Fairman won the race to give Aston the 1959 World Sports Car Championship. Photo courtesy of: THE...
Over 2-liter Grand Touring cars have always had a place to compete within the ever changing regulations of International Motorsports;...
Dan Gurney, as American as we make ’em, was once proposed to be President, and I still think our conflicted...
The J. Frank Harrison story Given today’s racing environment with its multi-million-dollar corporate budgets, it can be hard to imagine a time when private individuals paid these expenses. Wealthy enthusiasts such as Lindsey Hopkins (a Florida investment banker), John Edgar (a California industrialist), Joe Lubin (a California tractor parts dealer),...
During the early fifties, one of the biggest sports stars in the United States was Sam Hanks. Notice I said...
One of the most successful relationships in motor sports during the sixties was between Carroll Shelby and Ken Miles. It resulted in transforming Cobras into world-class automobiles, not only on tracks, but also on roads. The relationship between the two was not just a business one, it was also very...
There were a number of outstanding road-race weekends during the fifties. Phil Hill’s win at the first Pebble Beach comes...
On August 28, we lost our great and good champion, Phil Hill. The entire world of motor sports is saddened....
For the 1955 season, Monza was refurbished and the Milan Auto Club considered an oval race. Contact was made with USAC, which had taken over Indy car racing from the AAA. USAC’s Duane Carter was interested because he wanted Indy car races in Italy (Monza), Germany (Avus), and France (Monthlery)....
November 2008 Can-Am Thunder DVD By Duke Video As highlighted in this month’s feature on the 1970 Can-Am event at...
I have included a few remembrances about Lance in some previous Vintage Racecar columns, but because he was such a...
I don’t remember when I first met Lance Reventlow, but it must have been through my buddy, Bruce Kessler, who was Lance’s best friend. Lance became a significant figure in fifties-era racing because of his creation of the Scarabs. I knew him, but not well, so recently I talked with...
Carroll Shelby once remarked, “There are only two people I can think of who could sit down, take a welding...
We seem to hear more and more these days about the sorry state of the media. I’d say I have to agree, after a formerly reputable automotive radio talk show, Drivers Talk Radio, recently asked me to be a guest. Jeez, how low will these people sink for material? The...
Over-2-liter Grand Touring cars have always had a place to compete within the ever changing regulations of International Motorsports; the...
Someone once said that Indy car drivers would be lost if they had to turn right as well as left. They also said that at Le Mans they’d never find their behinds with both hands when it got dark or if it rained. Obviously, they never met Lloyd Ruby. During...
Augie Pabst is one of the practitioners of the skillful art of road racing from the early days of North...
Southern California has always been a hotbed of car aficionados. The hot rod craze started there and, after WWII, it...
How amusing, I often smile, that a breed of racer I associate with conservatism generally speeds around to the left. But we don’t do politics here, just history, so let’s have a look back at interesting times when oval drivers first tried their hands at turning both ways. The big...
Those looking for vintage photographs frequently contact me. During the fifties, my partner, Dick Sherwin, and I published a short-lived...
1957 Climax-powered Jomar 1957 Climax-powered Jomar. Photo: Harold Pace You know the story. Start with a svelte English chassis, add...
For the last 20 years or so of his life, Rodger Ward and I were friends. Even though I had met him only once during the fabulous fifties when he drove a customer’s Devin SS when I was the Devin distributor. We became close friends when I asked him to...
In April 1964, a new Gran Turismo racer 40-inches high rolled out of the Ford Advanced Vehicles factory in Slough,...
This interesting Web site is devoted to preserving historic photographs of the Cumberland Airport Sports Car races. Held from 1953–1970,...
Over 2-liter Grand Touring cars have always had a place to compete within the ever changing regulations of International Motorsports; the World Sports Car Championship from 1953–1961, the Speedworld Challenge from 1962–1963, and the International Championship of Makes from 1972–1981. This included racing in the great endurance races such as...
